The Senate Health Care Bill Is Still Not Dead

Senate Majority Leader Mc Connell Thomson Reuters

Melinda Barton
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18 July, 2017, 05:35

"The longer the bill's out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it's not repeal", the Kentucky senator said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. He is at home with his family and, "on the advice of his doctors", will be recovering in Arizona this week, a spokeswoman said.

Today, as senators were returning to Washington after the July Fourth recess, the president tweeted, "I can not imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a handsome new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!"

Two Republicans, Rand Paul and Susan Collins, have made clear that they will vote against the GOP measure, whose previous version got passed by the House in early May.

"We are very, very close to ending this healthcare nightmare", Trump said.

Meanwhile, the Senate panel that McCain leads will press ahead with its business this week.

McCain, 80, is recuperating from surgery to remove a blood clot. After a speech in which Pence claimed 60,000 disabled Ohioans were waiting to get care, a spokesman for Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich dismissed the claim as false on Twitter.

Mr. Paul said the delay could blunt any momentum Republicans have built up and give undecided senators a chance to examine the bill's shortcomings.

City officials say almost 40% of Philadelphians are insured through Medicaid and, though the new version of the Senate bill tweaked Marketplace plans a bit, it maintains deep cuts to Medicaid. Two GOP senators - Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of ME - nearly immediately opposed it, while several others expressed skepticism. But with the controversial health-care bill already on a knife-edge, opponents and critics of the legislation are raising doubts about whether it can survive the delay. Pathology reports on the clot were expected in the next several days. "We are deeply concerned that this shortsighted bill will compel states to prioritize annual budget pressures over patients, limiting long-term care options for seniors and individuals with disabilities". But yes, I believe as soon as we have a full contingent of Senators, that we'll have that vote.

"I have never known a man more tenacious and resilient than John McCain", Jeff Flake said.

Senate GOP leaders offered a new version of their health bill, which included changes meant to mollify both conservative Republicans who favor less regulation and moderates who want to ensure all Americans have access to insurance.

"After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!" the president tweeted before leaving Paris. That, according to the former vice president, is the key reality of the Senate's bill, and it should be more than enough "to make your blood boil".

Seyfarth Synopsis: The epicenter of the health care repeal and replace effort has moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate.

Republican leaders have said they want to vote on the bill, or at least to take the procedural steps toward a vote, by next week.